Editor's Note: With China's economic boom, more and more
American students are eager to learn Chinese, prompting U.S.
high schools to offer them Chinese courses through an Internet
language school in Beijing, writes New America Media reporter
Jun Wang, who monitors the Chinese media.

SAN
FRANCISCO – Chinese language teachers in Beijing don’t need to
apply for work visas to teach in the United States anymore.
From an office in west Beijing they can teach their mother
tongue through the Internet language school eChineseLearning
to Americans and students in 41 other countries.

Born
in Beijing, Fred Rao, founder and CEO of eChineseLearning,
speaks passionately about his teaching adventure and mission:
to cover every corner of the world with the Chinese
language.

After graduating from Stanford University
with a master’s in business administration, Rao launched his
Internet language school in Beijing in the spring of 2006,
with venture capital from the United States. He said his dream
took root in his heart long ago, when he lived with his
teacher parents. He started his first weekend Chinese language
school in the San Francisco Bay Area while still a student at
Stanford.

In the fall of 2006, the U.S. College
Board's Advanced Placement Program, which prepares high school
students for college-level courses, added the Chinese language
and culture class into its curriculum. It brought the Chinese
language to the attention of many American high schools,
students and their parents.

“As we don’t have enough
Chinese teachers in my school, we use eChineseLearning’s
service to provide online tutoring service for our students,”
said Mary Hagen, who teaches at a high school in Palo Alto,
Calif. “Its service is supplementary to our teaching at the
school.”

Thousands of high schools across the United
States started offering Chinese courses last year, which Rao
sees as opening the door to a huge market to his Internet
Chinese language school. Since then, eChineseLearning has
landed an increasing number of individuals, as well as school
groups, to learn from more than 40 teachers working in China’s
capital. Students and teachers sit in a virtual classroom
using the free service of Skype, said Rao.

Rao’s
Internet language school would have been a mission impossible
only a few years ago, when the technologies needed were rare
and expensive. But now, empowered by Skype, Google Talk and
MSN, with audio, video and multimedia materials on its
website, more than 200 students between four and 72 years old
have been studying in virtual classrooms. Rao plans to attract
students from at least 100 countries next year.

But it
is China’s economic engine that is the most powerful force
bringing students to learn Chinese. People from all over the
world believe that knowing the delicate tonal language is
surely a tool to grab a sizeable share of that market.

Jeff Ryan from New York City said one key reason his
company chose to train employees in virtual Chinese language
classrooms on a regular basis was “that they
(eChineseLearning) can customize lessons to meet our
employee’s need and schedule.”

“The price is
unbelievably cheap – a small fraction for what you would
ordinarily have to pay in the United States for such high
quality one-to-one tutoring,” said Anthony Zaloom, adjunct
professor of law, business and economy, who teaches at Univ.
of California, Berkeley School of Law.

The price is a
big draw for individual and group students. eChineseLearning
charges students nine U.S. dollars per hour, less than half of
the market price for the prevalent tutoring rate of $20 to $30
in the San Francisco Bay Area or in New York. If bought in
bulk class hours, students get an hour for seven dollars. From
time to time, the online language school offers promotions.
Its five dollars per hour price lures new
students.

Having been an eChineseLearning student since
shortly after the school got started, Zaloom has worked in law
firms in China and Japan for more than three
decades.

The course is tailored to each student’s need.
Rao now offers an advanced-level course, with the student
reading and discussing with his or her Chinese teacher the
most famous, ancient Chinese novel “Dream of the Red
Chamber.”

Disclaimer: Comments do not necessarily reflect the views
of New America Media. NAM reserves the right to edit or delete
comments. Once published, comments are visible to search
engines and will remain in their archives. If you do not want
your identity connected to comments on this site, please
refrain from commenting or use a handle or alias instead of
your real name.